Mr Cooney worked for that business in China and has known Mr Barrett since that time.

Bleeperbike planned to launch the scheme last year but ran into problems with Dublin City Council which said it wanted to put bye-laws in place to manage the scheme first.

The bikes were then withdrawn from the streets, and after the by-laws were put in place Bleeperbike was given a licence to operate, along with another firm, Urbo.

Bleeperbike gets its name from a machine attached that makes a "bleep" when the bikes are locked and unlocked from the bike rack.

Mr Cooney got the idea having observed stationless bike-sharing during his time in China.

"The focus is to do a good job in Dublin so we're launching in Blanchardstown this month with Fingal County Council, and we have pilots up and running across Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin as well," Mr Cooney said.

"There's a fair logistics and operational challenges to get right so we're not looking very much beyond Dublin until we get that going really well.

"Then we'll see what opportunities are around at that time," he added.